Oswego wins $10 million prize in state’s Downtown Revitalization Initiative

OSWEGO, N.Y. — Oswego is Central New York’s winner in New York State’s $100 million Downtown Revitalization Initiative (DRI).

“Congratulations, you deserve it,” Gov. Andrew Cuomo said in announcing Oswego’s win late Thursday at the Lake Ontario Conference Center. “The competition was very very stiff. 122 applications, only 10 first place winners.”

The Central New York regional economic-development council chose Oswego as part of a competitive process, Cuomo’s office said.

Under the DRI, Oswego will focus on projects in its downtown area that will leverage “significant” private investment and provide new housing opportunities, mixed-use development, a business incubator, commercial/retail development and community services.

Oswego will allocate the $10 million in state funding to “revitalize the local neighborhood and generate new opportunities for long-term growth and prosperity,” Cuomo’s office said.

The award will include up to $300,000 in planning funds for private-sector experts to work with a local planning committee to draft a “strategic”-investment plan that will identify specific economic development, transportation, and housing and community projects.

Plans will be completed by early 2017, Cuomo’s office said.

The DRI program seeks to “transform communities ripe for development into vibrant neighborhoods where the next generation of New Yorkers will want to live and work,” Cuomo’s office said in an April release outlining the program.

The program, first presented in Cuomo’s 2016 State of the State address, will invest $10 million into 10 downtown neighborhoods across the state.

Other winners in recent announcements include Elmira in the Southern Tier; Geneva in the Finger Lakes; Plattsburgh in the North Country; Westbury in the Long Island region; and Middletown in the Mid-Hudson area.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com